The Roman
Catholic Church teaches that there are two categories of sin [1854].*
The first is mortal sin [1855, 1874]:

We commit mortal sin when we
transgress a commandment of God in a serious matter, with full
knowledge, and free consent of the will. Serious matter is, for
example, unbelief, hatred of our neighbor, adultery, serious theft,
murder, etc. –Dogmatic Theology for the Laity1

As original sin killed the life of God in
Adam, so mortal sin ends the life of God in baptized Catholics [1855].
That is why the Church calls this kind of sin mortal, from the
Latin word for death. Mortal sin kills the soul and, unrepented,
brings eternal punishment [1033, 1861, 1874].

The second kind of sin, according to the
Church, is venial sin [1862, 1875]:

We commit a venial sin (one
which can be forgiven outside confession) whenever we transgress a
commandment of God either in a matter which is not so serious, or
without full knowledge, or without full consent of the will. . . . for
example, deliberate distraction at prayer, petty thievery, idleness,
white lies, lack of love and generosity in small things, etc. –Dogmatic
Theology for the Laity 2

The Church calls these sins venial,
from the Latin word venia, meaning pardon. God will
forgive the sinner of these minor sins if he confesses them to God in
prayer with sincere repentance. Venial sins weaken a person’s
spiritual vitality and make the individual more susceptible to greater
sins. But unlike mortal sins, they do not kill the life of the soul or
incur eternal punishment. [1855]

Roman Catholic theologians compare the
manner in which mortal and venial sins affect the soul to the way in
which illnesses affect the body. Most ailments are minor. The body’s
immune system fights them off and eventually restores health. A venial
sin is like a minor sickness of the soul. It hinders spirituality and
lowers resistance to temptation, but the vitality of the soul survives.
[1863]

Mortal sin is a death blow. It kills the
soul as surely as a fatal disease kills the body. When a Catholic who
has received sanctifying grace through baptism commits a mortal sin, he
loses that grace. [1861]3 He who by baptism had been justified, because
of mortal sin forfeits the grace of justification, or, it might be said,
is dejustified.4 He who had been a child of God and on his way to
heaven, becomes a child of wrath and destined for hell. [1033, 1861,
1874] And just as a dead body has no capacity to restore life to itself,
the Church teaches that a soul struck dead by mortal sin cannot revive
itself. The sinner must turn to the Church and to the sacrament of
penance. [1446, 1856] 5

All Sin Is Mortal

Just how serious is sin? The Bible
teaches that the spiritual consequence of every sin is the death
penalty, eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire (Revelation
20:14-15); "The soul who sins will die," (Ezekiel 18:4);
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

This is not to say that every sin is
equally wicked or abhorrent to God. Scripture teaches that some sins are
more evil than others and will be judged accordingly (John 19:11;
Matthew 10:15). Jesus taught that there will be degrees of eternal
punishment in hell (Luke 12:47-48).

Nonetheless, the Lord never distinguished
between sins in terms of their ultimate penalty. 6 Jesus taught that
every sin warrants eternal punishment in hell. He taught that the sin of
anger brings the same punishment as the sin of murder (Matthew 5:21-22),
and the sin of lust the same penalty as the sin of adultery (Matthew
5:27-30).

Roman Catholicism, on the other hand,
teaches that some sins are "light sins,"[1863] minor
infractions of the moral laws of God [1862-1863]. Telling a small lie or
stealing something inexpensive is somehow different from telling a big
lie or committing grand theft. Small sins, venial sins, do not bring
eternal punishment.

Additionally, the Roman Catholic Church
teaches that, though venial sins may incline a person toward later
committing a mortal sin, not even the regular practice of venial sins
warrants eternal punishment. A baptized Catholic who does not commit a
mortal sin remains in a state of grace even if he is habitually guilty
of a multitude of venial sins. [1863]

The Scriptures, on the other hand, teach
that if a person’s life is characterized by sin, he should not
consider himself a born-again Christian:

Little children, let no one deceive
you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is
righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil.... No one who is
born of God practices sin.... 1 John 3:7-9

The Church even says that if mitigating
circumstances exist, not even the gravest sin merits eternal punishment.
It teaches that for a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be met:
[1857-1862]

• The sin must be serious. The evil
act must be a grave offense against God or someone else.

• The sinner must be aware. The one
performing the act must have full knowledge that what he is doing is
grievously wrong.

• The sin must be deliberate. The
sinner must know he can resist the temptation, yet willfully choose to
do evil.

Should the sin not meet one of these
requirements, it does not merit eternal punishment no matter how evil
the act might be.

In practice these conditions become
ready-made excuses for lawlessness. Consider, for example, a person who
has displayed a low ability to resist a certain sin. According to Roman
Catholic theology, his sin may not be completely deliberate: "The
freedom of our will can be impeded by our natural disposition, the
influence of improper upbringing, internal or external compulsion, or
the force of violent and sudden passion."7 If a person in such a
condition were to commit a gravely evil sin, therefore, it is not a
mortal sin. Father Melvin L. Farrell shows how this might apply to
sexual temptation:

For example, a habit of masturbation
may be temporarily beyond a young person’s sincere efforts to
overcome. In an unguarded moment, a couple planning marriage may
succumb to their passion for each other. A person may have a fixation
for homosexual acts which seemingly cannot be controlled. To
automatically label all such persons as guilty of mortal sin is
unwarranted. –A Catechism for Parents and Teachers8

Consequently, though the Bible teaches
that all sins are mortal, the Church teaches that no sin is necessarily
mortal. And, though the Bible never mentions venial sin, the Church
teaches that every sin is potentially venial!

An Underestimated Problem

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught,
"If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it
from you.... If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw
it from you..." (Matthew 5:29-30). Why such severe treatment?
"For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body
perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew
5:29). The eternal consequences of sin are so horrifying, that, if
physical mutilation could keep one from sinning, it would be a better
alternative than ending up in hell.

God allows the full weight of sin to fall
upon the sinner that he might cry out, "What must I do to be
saved?" (Acts 16:30). It is the convicted sinner who realizes that
he needs a Savior. This is the person who upon learning the gospel
clings to the cross like a drowning man to a life preserver. This is the
person who knows that though he deserves to go to hell a thousand times
over, Jesus’ blood has made full satisfaction for his every sin: past,
present, and future.

Roman Catholic theology, on the other
hand, consistently undermines the seriousness of sin and its
consequences, most notably by teaching that most sins are not punishable
by death.

This is a lie that is as old as the world
itself. Soon after God warned Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed him
they would "surely die" (Genesis 2:17), Satan told Eve,
"You surely shall not die!" (Genesis 3:4).

This same lie has deceived countless
Roman Catholics. As a result, most go through life unaware of the
magnitude of their guilt before God. Underestimating their problem, they
readily embrace an inadequate and faulty solution: the gospel according
to Rome.

3. As explained in Chapter 1 (The
Gospel According to Rome), according to Roman Catholic theology,
with the infusion of sanctifying grace come the gifts of the Holy Spirit
and the infusion of virtue, most notably charity. [1803-1845] To be in
possession of charity, therefore, is equated in Catholic theology with
being in a state of grace. Conversely, one who has lost charity through
mortal sin, has lost sanctifying grace in his soul. For example, the
Catechism of the Catholic Church states that mortal sin "...results
in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is,
of the state of grace." [1861]Other times the Catechism
simply states: "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man…."
[1855]

4. Though two words used in this book, dejustification
and rejustification, are not used in Roman Catholic documents,
equivalent expressions are found. The Council of Trent stated:

Those who through sin have forfeited the
received grace of justification, can again be justified when, moved by
God, they exert themselves to obtain through the sacrament of penance
the recovery, by the merits of Christ, of the grace lost. (Council of
Trent, session 6, "Decree on Justification," chapter 14.
Translation by H. J. Schroeder, Canons and Decrees of the Council of
Trent (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1978), p. 39.)

The process by which baptized Catholics
"through sin have forfeited the received grace of
justification" is summarized here as dejustification. The
process by which Catholics "can again be justified" is
expressed here as rejustification.

Dejustiflcation should not
be understood as a return to that state in which the person existed
before baptism. The Church teaches that baptism imprints an indelible
character upon the soul. [1272-1274, 1280] Additionally, the sacrament
is conferred principally to remove original sin. When a person commits a
mortal sin, though he loses justifying grace in his soul, original sin
does not return and the imprint of baptism is not removed. Therefore, a
person can be baptized only once and grace forfeited after baptism must
be restored through the sacrament of penance.

Similarly, rejustification should
not be understood to mean the removal of original sin, the imprinting of
the character of baptism, and other effects unique to baptism. Rather,
it is used here to refer to the restoration to the life of grace through
the sacrament of penance. (Cf. Council of Trent, session 7, "Canons
on the Sacraments in General," canon 9; Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, part III, question 66, article 9.)

5. The Code of Canon Law, canon 960,
states the requirement for individual confession while at the same
time allowing for exception: "Individual and integral confession
and absolution constitute the only ordinary way by which the faithful
person who is aware of serious sin is reconciled with God and with the
Church; only physical or moral impossibility excuses the person from
confession of this type, in which case reconciliation can take place
in other ways."

Perfect contrition, explains the Church,
is one such way: "When it arises from a love by which God is loved
above all else, contrition is called ‘perfect’ (contrition of
charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains
forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have
recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible." [1452]
[1492]

6. Some Catholic scholars point to 1
John 5:17 as a biblical basis for dividing sin into categories of
mortal and venial. [1854] John writes, "Allunrighteousness
is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death" (1 John 5:17).
The "sin not leading to death," they say, is venial sin. The
sin that leads to death is mortal sin.

This interpretation ignores the context
of the passage. The epistle is written to Christians influenced by the
heresy of Gnosticism. False prophets were teaching that only the
spiritual realm mattered. One’s behavior in the flesh was irrelevant.
They even denied that Jesus had come in the flesh.

John exhorts the Christians to hold fast
to the truth. He assures them that they can pray with confidence that
God will hear and answer their requests (1 John 5:14-15). John, however,
does make one exception to this promise: "If anyone sees his
brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will
for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is
a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for
this" (1 John 5:16). The Christians were not to intercede in prayer
for those who had renounced Christ and embraced Gnosticism. The reason
for this restriction is that there is no forgiveness for those who
reject God’s only provision for sin, Jesus Christ the Savior (Hebrews
6:4-8).

1 John 5:17, therefore, is not speaking
about different punishments for sin, but rather, a special condition
when intercessory prayer is inappropriate. If a person commits a
"sin leading to death" (1 John 5:16), here the sin of
apostasy, no intercession is to be made, for God is not willing to grant
that request.